Tomatoes are still growing strong and producing very well in the greenhouse and I managed to save some to make a decent amount of sauce. As the outside plants have been destroyed by blight I managed to make 2 big jars only. Well, more than nothing and it will be nice to open them in January.
I use home grown ingredients only, that what makes the sauce really special but you can of course use shop bought tomatoes; they are in season I have seen them 79p a kilo at the local shop. So even if you don’t have any home grown vegetables you and still make your own tomato sauce, it is always better than buy the ready stuff in the jar.
What I use: tomatoes, onions, garlic, few peppers, basil, oregano all home grown. And salt and black pepper of course; and a pinch of sugar if the tomatoes too acidic. The quantities can differ, I like lots of onions in everything so I used about a kilo of onions with 4 kilos of tomatoes and 2 whole bulbs of garlic.
Chop everything, then fry the onions in sunflower oil or even better mild olive oil. After a few minutes I add 4 – 5 chopped green peppers to the onions and fry it together. Then add the chopped tomatoes and simmer slowly until they completely broken up. In the meantime I add the garlic and the herbs, also salt and black pepper.
After about 30 minutes cooking I blend the hell out of the sauce so it is as smooth as possible. Then bring it to the boil again and add some more salt and basil if needed and simmer it gently for 10 minutes. Then pour into jars, and old technique from my mum: I place the jars in a shallow pan of boiling water with a kitchen towel on the top of them so they seal nicely. And simmer the water for about 10 minutes. This way they will keep for 6 months or longer. Oh yes I had lots of yellow tomato in the sauce so the colour is not very red but it is delicious I promise!
